Knicks puzzled by their de-composing act

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, May 11, 1997

PURCHASE, N.Y. - Jeff Van Gundy admitted he should have called timeout with less than 50 seconds left to give his team proper direction on offense. Chris Childs partly blamed himself, saying that he contemplated swinging the ball around the perimeter instead of failing to convert a wild, twisting layup along the baseline.

"We gave them a gift," Childs said. "That's how we feel."

The Knicks were revisited by all their old crunchtime demons on Friday night at Miami Arena, forgetting to parlay effort with common sense. Coupled with Tim Hardaway's penchant for drama, it cost them Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Jamal Mashburn's 3-pointer with 2.9 seconds remaining was merely the final nail in an 88-84 Heat victory, a game that evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1 and opened old wounds involving the Knicks' composure.

"It's not like we have Dontae' Jones, Walter McCarty and John Wallace out there, our three rookies," Larry Johnson said. "We've got five veterans out there, and that shouldn't happen."

Thus, New York finds itself trying to forget the one that got away and worry about something it can control. Game 3 on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden will be the first time in 16 days the Knicks will have played on their home floor.

Hardaway slithered through mounds of muscle and long limbs and lofted a runner in the lane over an elongated Patrick Ewing with 49.9 seconds left to give Miami an 85-84 lead. After that shot, the Knicks wilted.

Heat power forward P.J. Brown bumped and fronted Ewing, who had scored 11 points in the fourth quarter after an awful start. Finally, Brown pushed him off the blocks, and Childs, frustrated that he could not deliver an entry pass on the left wing, kept dribbling. Ewing came up and set a pick for him. Childs then drove the baseline and tried the layup that was partially blocked by Brown with 27.9 seconds left.

"Maybe I should have swung the ball around, but the shot clock was winding down," Childs said. "I don't know. I just wanted to get something off. I'm going to take those kinds of shots. This one didn't fall."

Payton perseveres

SEATTLE - A leg-weary Gary Payton will keep playing the entire game - or as much of it as possible - for the Seattle SuperSonics.

As Payton goes, even a tired Payton, so go the Sonics.

"If I give the ball to Eric Snow, he can't get a shot," coach George Karl said Saturday. "Gary Payton can get a shot. Gary has the great talent where he gets the shot all the time."

And playing virtually all the time - an average of 46 minutes against the Houston Rockets - doesn't bother him much.

"Right now, we can't worry about fatigue," Payton said.

"If we lose two more games, we're out."

The Rockets can take a 3-1 lead over the defending Western Conference champions Sunday at the Key Arena. Game 5 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Houston.&lt;